


appreciation

by halfwheeze



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Ambiguous Age, Baljeet Buford and Phineas have the only speaking roles, Getting Together, M/M, Returning to my hyperfixations of past to cope with the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:53:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27156194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: ap·pre·ci·a·tionnoun1. recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something.2. a full understanding of a situation.
Relationships: Baljeet Tjinder/Buford van Stomm
Comments: 6
Kudos: 64





	appreciation

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated unofficially to both Shine and CJ, though for different reasons. Thank you to the Bujeet Discord.

It seems like any other day when he wakes up - yeah, yesterday had been kinda shitty, but Buford wasn’t a man to linger on the past. Van Stomms, if somethin’ ain’t worth a full out grudge, typically like to move on fairly quickly. Keeps ya sharp. 

It was only… everybody knows what they contribute to the group. Phineas and Ferb have their inventing, planning and execution skills, everybody knows about all of that, and Isabella runs the behind the scenes like nobody’s business, deploying her Fireside girls like men on missions, and Baljeet is the math guy, always making sure that nothing would go wrong. Buford… doesn’t know where he fits in. He ain’t exactly smart in all the maths and the sciency things - he’s more of an English, literature, languages guy - and he doesn’t have anybody at his beck and call. Even Baljeet ain’t even really under his jurisdiction, just mostly his protection, which the runt barely even seems to need anymore. 

It’d be… fun, he thinks. To be needed. 

He gets out of bed and gets ready to go to Phineas and Ferb’s backyard anyway, because he’d rather be extraneous than alone. It’s not as early as he’d usually like to be; he had gotten to sleep late last night, and he’s only recently been letting himself catch up the rest. He’s been assured countless times by both Phineas and Isabella (and once, surprisingly, Ferb) that he doesn’t have to be early to be included, so he figures he’ll be fine. Maybe. He picks up his step a little, but it’s completely unrelated. 

Worse, it’s been kinda… lonely, in his head, lately. Like everyone is there, all around him all the time, but he’s still… separate. Everybody else has their contributing and their things to do, but Buford is just… there. You know, he always shows up, he always tries to make sure that everybody is okay, but Buford doesn’t really do anything. Nothing that really  _ matters.  _ He’s a bully. They don’t do much. 

Sometimes, he doesn’t know if he wants to be a bully anymore. 

He can hear what’s going on at Phineas and Ferb’s house long before he can see it. It’s just vague construction noises, but he knows. It makes him nervous when they start gettin’ into things without him, so he wants to be able to see what it is so at least he’ll be prepared, but he can’t see it from the end of their road. In fact, even when he’s in their driveway, he still can’t see it. All he can see is Baljeet, standing there with a bouquet of flowers and a smile, lighting up when he sees Buford like… like he means something. Buford struggles to push down a blush that he hardly understands the reasoning behind in the first place. 

“Hello Buford,” Baljeet says, his smile getting nervous around the edges. Buford wants to push those edges back up. 

“Hey, Jeet. What’s goin’ on?” he asks, growing shifty beneath Baljeet’s casual regard. Baljeet sighs, the flowers in hand going to the side as his posture loosens. He looks disappointed. Buford internally recoils at the idea. 

“It has come to my attention that we… no. It has come to my attention that  _ I  _ have not been properly appreciating you lately, and it is not okay. I would like to extend an apology to you, my friend,” Baljeet says, looking down at his flowers for a moment. “These are… these are for you.” 

“Why?” Buford asks, the question bursting out of him unbidden. Baljeet seems to be startled as well. 

“You are my best friend, my bully, you are incredibly important to me, and I cannot… I cannot allow it to continue that you may be under the impression that that is not appreciated. I have asked for the assistance of our friends in rectifying that situation. If you would follow me,” Baljeet says, proffering his arm. Buford, startled, takes it, and takes the flowers when they’re offered to him as well. He feels woefully underdressed in his usual shirt and shorts, but Baljeet’s steady hand upon the hand that’s tucked into Baljeet’s arm, that keeps him steady. 

He hadn’t seen what was in the yard because it went  _ underground. Just like Buford had been wanting to, like he’s mentioned to Baljeet exactly once, months ago.  _

He has an interest in the underground. Sue him. 

Baljeet leads him down a set of stairs carved into the ground. One of the Fireside girls - Milly, she’s always nice to Buford, likes to bring him worms she thinks have interest markings - takes Baljeet’s coat. They enter something like a bunker, and Phineas greets them at the door. 

“Bonjour, messieurs! Thank you for coming to the Bujeet Bromance to Romance Bunker Bistro. May I show you to your seats?” he asks, already leading them in a direction. Buford is left reeling.  _ Bromance to Romance?  _ Jeet didn’t want a romance! There was no way! Buford would definitely have noticed - he knows his nerd - but anyway,  _ Buford  _ **totally** didn’t want a romance either. A romance? With his  _ nerd?  _ No. Unacceptable. Totally against the Bully Code. Except the Bully to Bromance to Romance clause, but that’s completely inapplicable. The nerd has to… proposition the bully. 

The nerd has to proposition the bully. 

Baljeet is… 

Baljeet is propositioning him? 

“What -” 

“I want something more with you, Buford. I would like to be  _ more  _ than your nerd. I would like to be… your boyfriend, if that is something you would also be interested in,” Baljeet explains boldly. Buford swallows. Baljeet is propositioning him. Baljeet is asking him, and Buford has never  _ really  _ been able to say no to this scrappy little runt, this blossoming beam of sunshine, this piece of him that has carved out more and more of him in the years that they’ve known each other. He’s only just now beginning to appreciate just how much Baljeet means to him, and he feels like it’ll only become more. 

“I think I could come around to it, yeah,” he replies. Even to himself, it sounds sappy, whipped, earnest. It sounds like exactly what he means. It’s worth all the sappy, whipped earnestness to see Baljeet smile like that anyway. 

**Author's Note:**

> My p&f blog is @adysonsweetwater


End file.
